Aliens of LondonWorld War 3 Novelisation
by Josman
Summary: Rose returns to visit her family. But finds the whole world under threat from skin-stealing aliens.
1. The Unhappy Return

**Author's notes: I like this story more than a lot of fans I know, though I think it would be stronger without the fart jokes. For this reason, and because they would be less funny in print, I'll be cutting them out.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who (I'm not sure any one person could claim to anyway. My point is, I don't work for the BBC)**

* * *

**Aliens of London/World War 3**

_I bring you a warning: Everyone of you listening to my voice, tell the world, tell this to everybody wherever they are. Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies. _- The Thing From Another World

**Chapter 1: The Unhappy Return**

Amidst the rumble of traffic and the noise of daily life, no-one paid much attention to the wheezing-groaning sound, nor looked over as the TARDIS materialised in the middle of a council estate in eastern London.

Rose stepped out of the box and looked around at her home estate. The walls, the bins and the graffiti. After everything that had happened to her lately, it seemed strange that such an ordinary place could exist. "How long have I been gone for?" She asked The Doctor.

"12 hours."

Rose laughed. She guessed she couldn't stay in the TARDIS for too long or her hair would be noticeably longer. But the fact that she could go off on these fantastic adventures then step straight back into daily life was another entry on her list of marvels. "I won't be long," she said, "just got to speak to my mum."

"What're you gonna' tell her?"

"Dunno. That I went to the year 5 billion and met Charles Dickens in 12 hours? Nah, I'll tell her I spent the night at Cherene's." She turned to go. "Don't go flying off!"

As his companion disappeared up the stairs, The Doctor peered round the estate for something to do for a few minutes. There was nothing much of interest in this place for a man who'd seen the downfall of Robespierre. A bunch of boarded up shops, some discarded newspapers, a collection of fliers posted on some pillars.

He decided to give the fliers a read. No particular reason, just to pass a few minutes. As usual, they were full of people offering cheep haircuts and asking about lost pets. One amused him: _Bike for sale. Rear wheel not actually round. Price reflects this._

Looking at the next poster down, his hearts stopped briefly It was a photo of Rose, captioned: _Missing Person: If anyone has any information on Rose Tyler, please call the number below. Last seen..._

Rose breezed cheerily through her front door and dropped her keys in the bowl. "I'm back!" She called. "Cherene's getting all upset again. Are you in?" Footsteps from her mother's room confirmed that she was. "So anyway, what's been going on round here? How're you?"

Jackie appeared in the doorway, staring at her as though looking at a ghost.

"What?" Rose grinned. "What's that face for? It's not the first time I've stayed out all night.

Jackie dropped her mug. She looked Rose up and down as if checking for something. "You're here." She gasped.

"Course I'm here. Where would I be?"

"You're really here, I can't believe it!" She leapt forward and pulled her startled daughter into a tight hug. Over her shoulder, Rose noticed that the kitchen table was littered with missing person notices and helpful pamphlets.

At this point The Doctor burst in. "I made a mistake." He said. "It's not twelve hours, its twelve months. You've been gone a year. Sorry."

* * *

It had taken all of ten minutes for "Rose, thank God you came back." To transform into "How could you disappear like that!" A policeman had been called round, but he was struggling to get a word in. Ultimately, he decided it may be best to let Mrs Tyler make the enquiries for him.

"The days and weeks I sat here, all on my own!" She shouted. "I thought you were dead! And where were you? "Travelling!" What sort of answer is that?" She turned to the policeman. "You ask her, she won't tell me. That's all she says, "Travelling!""

"That's where I was." Rose said sheepishly.

"Your passport's still in the draw!" Jackie roared. "It's just one lie after another."

"I meant to phone, I really did. I just... forgot."

"What, for a year? You forgot for a year! And I'm just left sitting here, on my own! I just don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?"

"Um, that's sort of my fault." Said The Doctor. "I, um... employed Rose as my companion."

"When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?" The policeman asked.

"No! Never." The Doctor and Rose said quickly.

"Then what is it!" Shouted Jackie. "Because you waltz in here, all charm and smiles. And the next thing I know, my daughter vanishes off the face of the Earth! How old are you? 40? 45? Did you find her on the internet? Did you go online and pretend you were a doctor?"

"I am a doctor!"

"Then prove it!" Jackie snarled. "Stitch this!" And she whacked him round the face, sending him sprawling into an armchair. Rose decided not to take sides in their argument.

* * *

The policeman eventually decided that there was no evidence of foul play on either side. Rose was fine, though he still had no idea where she'd been. His job done, he left the Tylers to sort their problem themselves.

Rose, by this point, had been brought to tears by the situation. Having expelled her frustration on The Doctor's face, Jackie was once more filled with the overwhelming desire to hold her daughter close and let her know that everything would be fine. Throughout her absence, a part of her had always feared that Rose wasn't coming back because she was afraid whether she'd be welcome.

"Did you think of me at all?" She asked."

"I did, mum. All the time." Rose said, truthfully.

"One phone call, just to let me know you were alive."

"It's hard to explain."

"That's what terrifies me. What can have happened that could be so bad that you find it so hard to tell me. Where were you?"

Rose just sobbed even more at that question so Jackie pulled her in again. It could wait.

* * *

"I can't tell her." Said Rose. "I can't even begin to tell her. She'll never forgive me."

The Doctor had gone up to the roof to escape the domestic scene for a while. He'd rarely dealt with this sort of problem before. Though some of his friends had taken extended periods of absence from home, they tended to have the capacity to sort everything out once he'd dropped them off. At least he hoped they did. He tried, where possible to get them back to a good place and time for resuming their lives. But it occurred to him that this probably wasn't the first time he'd screwed up.

"I missed a whole year?" Said Rose. "A good year?"

"Middling." The Doctor shrugged.

"It's so useless." She groaned.

"Well if it's this much trouble, are you gonna' stay?"

"Dunno. I can't leave her now. Not after what I did to her."

"Well, she's not coming with us." He said flatly. "I don't do families."

That got a laugh from Rose. "I can't believe she slapped you!"

"900 years of time and space, I've never been slapped!"

Rose laughed some more.

"It hurt!" He insisted.

"You're so gay." Rose laughed. She pondered for a moment. "When you say 900 years, is that..."

"My age, yeah." The Doctor finished. It was roughly correct.

"My mum was right, that is a bit of an age gap. Blimey, every conversation with you just goes mental." She stood up and wandered closer to the railings. Taking in the sights and sounds of the everyday world. The distant rumble of traffic, the idiot below with his music on too loud. The roar of an aircraft overhead. It was a far cry from life in the TARDIS. She was starting to feel like a stranger on her own planet. "The thing is. I can never talk to anybody. Because... all that stuff I've seen. And no-one else knows about it."

Their conversation was interrupted as the roar of the overhead aircraft rose to a deafening level. They spun around and saw a sleek metal spacecraft powering towards them, flying a couple of metres over their heads.

The ship twisted and wobbled in the air, leaving a great trail of smoke behind it. Somehow, it was able to dodge all of the taller buildings, manoeuvring itself over the Thames. It clered Tower Bridge by inches and sped towards the city. A manoeuvring thruster misfired and it veered to the right. By one final desperate course correction, it managed to miss Saint Paul's. But then the engines went out completely and it plummeted downwards towards the tower most Londoners knew as Big Ben. The hardened argonite wing sliced easily through the clock face, striking Big Ben itself as it went. The ship continued its descent, landing with an almighty splash in the Thames.

"That's not fair." Said Rose.

* * *

Almost as one, the population of London rushed towards Westminster. The roads were backed up for miles around. The army had to be called in to keep order and prevent a general crush around Westminster bridge, only a few press people got through.

The Doctor and Rose had barely got a mile from her flat before they ran into their first roadblock. The army were in the process of setting up a series of rings around the site, each designed to alleviate some of the chaos caused by people trying to get past the next ring. No-one was getting to Westminster without a seriously good reason.

"Did you know this was gonna' happen?" Said Rose

"Nope."

"Do you know who it is?"

"Nope."

"Do you know why it crashed?"

"Nope."

"I'm so glad I've got you."

The Doctor was grinning broadly. "This is why I travel Rose, to see history happening, right here!"

"Well, let's have a closer look. Never mind the traffic, we've got the TARDIS."

"We've already got one spaceship in the middle of London." He said "I don't want to park another one on top of it."

"But your spaceship looks like a big blue box. No-one's gonna' notice."

"You'd be surprised. Big crash like this. There'll be all sorts. Trust me, the TARDIS stays where it is."

"So history's happening, and we can't see it. I suppose we could do what everyone else does."

"What's that."

"Watch it on TV."

* * *

There was certainly no shortage of TV coverage. Almost every channel was showing some kind of breaking news report. On Chanel 5, a reporter was covering the destruction of Big Ben. ("Big Ben's the bell, not the tower." The Doctor muttered, though he supposed it had hit the bell as well.) Chanel 4 were covering the authorities attempts to contain the rush of sightseers and quell civil disturbances throughout the country. ITV were filming the wreck itself, where army divers were going down into the wreck. On BBC2 the _Blue Peter_ presenters were showing how to make a cake shaped like a spaceship.

The Doctor took a look round the room. Some of Jackie's and Rose's friends had come round to chat about the spaceship and where Rose had been. Jackie was glaring at him occasionally, as though she wanted him out. For now though, Rose's reassurances were convincing her to let him stay. He ignored her glare and switched to the news channels. A CNN reporter was reporting a worldwide grounding of flights. The US government, she said, were urging people to watch the skies, just in case. The Doctor flipped over to BBC News. They'd managed to get a reporter right on to Westminster bridge.

"I can now confirm," said the reporter, "that a body has been found. A body of non-terrestrial origin. Here, you can see it now!" He gestured over to some steps, where some men in high visibility jackets were carrying a figure, covered in a sheet. Now this was interesting.

The Doctor was distracted, at this point, by Cherene putting an arm around him.

"Love the jacket." She said.

"Er... thanks."

"So, you and Rose aren't actually together then?"

"Nope."

"So, do you have anybody?"

The Doctor looked glum. "Rather not talk about it right now."

Noticing that Rose was inadvertently squinting at her, Cherene decided it wasn't worth it.

The Doctor turned his attention back to the TV, where a new reporter was now standing outside the gates of Albion Hospital. "The body is being brought to a secure UNIT mortury, under armed guard. This building has been evacuated, all the patients transferred." The reporter put his finger to his ear abruptly. "I've just received word that General Asquith is being escorted to this location. Whitehall, at this time are denying everything. We still have no confirmation of the presence of an alien body within these walls."

* * *

"Doctor" Toshiko Sato flipped hurriedly through the medical textbook she'd found. When she'd agreed to fill in for Doctor Harper, he'd assured her that the job would simply involve cataloguing some of the bodies in the UNIT archives. She hadn't expected to find herself dealing with the biggest find since the Yeti. And if anyone found out she wasn't a medic, she'd be in big trouble.

She looked up to see General Asquith enter the mortuary. "Right then, let's get a look, shall we." He said.

Toshiko lifted up the sheet. Asquith gagged slightly and took a step back.

"And that's real then?" Said the General. "It's not a dummy or a hoax or anything?"

"I've X-rayed the brain case." She said, as calmly as she could. "It's wired up in there like nothing I've ever seen. This is alien."

"Right." Said Asquith. "There are some experts being flown in. Until then, keep that thing out of sight."

With the help of some orderlies, they moved the body into one of the draws. Seeing the General turning to leave, Toshiko ran after him.

"Excuse me sir." She said. "I know it's a state of emergency and there's a lot of roomer flying around but... Is it true what they're saying about the Prime Minister.

Asquith thought for a moment, then decided it was best to turn and walk out without another word. Sato wasn't the first to ask that question today. Every head of state throughout the world was hurriedly preparing an address for their people. And yet the prime minister of the very country where the crash had happened was nowhere to be seen. No-one even knew where he was. Asquith just hoped that this wasn't linked to the alien's arrival.


	2. The Pilot

**Chapter 2: The Pilot**

In Downing street, the press were clamouring for any kind of response from the government. Outside the gates, the public were massing for much the same reason. Sadly, they were being frustratingly quiet.

They rushed forward suddenly as a car drew up outside Number 10. They stepped back in disappointment when they saw that the passenger in the car was merely Joseph Green, the chairman of the Parliamentary commission for the monitoring of sugar standards in imported confectionary. Not the most useful person to be interviewing.

If the public were in a state of confusion, it was nothing compared to those in the government. The entire staff at downing street were rushing about, searching for reports and trying to find some clue as to what they were supposed to be doing. Tea servers and cleaners had to be called in to answer the phones, since there simply weren't enough staff to handle the volume of calls.

Indra Genesh found Mr Green stood by the front door looking at the chaotic atmosphere in confusion. He hurried over and introduced himself, while leading the man towards the stairs. "Andrew Genesh, sir. Junior secretary for the MOD. I'll be your liaison."

"Where the hell is he?" Was the first thing Green asked. Indra knew who he meant. It was the same thing everyone was asking. It was getting harder to deflect their questions.

"Can we talk in private?" He said.

"Excuse me." A woman behind them got his attention. "Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."

"I'm a bit busy right now Ma'am."

"But I had an appointment, for 3:15."

"Yes, and then a spaceship crashed into London. The schedule got changed." He turned away from Harriet and led the way up the stairs.

"Where's the prime minister?" Green insisted again, once they were out of earshot of the staff downstairs.

Indra looked around. "No-one knows. He seems to have disappeared. I regret to inform you that with the city gridlocked and the cabinet stuck in traffic, that makes you acting Prime Minister. effective immediately." He saw a look of vague alarm creeping into Green's eyes.

They'd reached the second floor. He led Green into a room to one side. The entrance to the main cabinet rooms was on the far side. "This is Margret Blaine, of MI5."

"There's no more information sir." She said. "I personally led the Prime minister from the cabinet rooms to his car. This is Oliver Charles, transport liaison."

"The car's completely disappeared." Said Oliver. "There's no record. It literally vanished."

"Right, er, well let's get inside, tell me everything."

The three of them turned to move into the cabinet rooms. Indra got their attention just before they got in. "Um, sir. These are the emergency protocols. Detailing the actions to be taken by the government in the event of an alien incursion." He handed them a red briefcase.

Green thanked him and shut the door. He waited ten seconds before he was certain that the secretary had moved away, then turned back to Margret and Oliver, grinning evilly. "Looks like it worked." He said.

Margret laughed manically, Oliver and Joseph soon joined in. They were in charge now. Time to start having some fun!

* * *

Rose spotted The Doctor slipping out of her flat and Promptly hurried after him. "And where do you think you're going?" She said once she'd caught him.

"Fresh air." Said The Doctor. "It's getting a bit... human in there for me. Off on a wander, that's all."

"Right. There's a spaceship on the Thames and you're just off on a wander."

"Nothing to do with me." Said The Doctor. "That was a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, colour of smoke, everything."

"So..."

"So maybe this is it! first contact. The day mankind first comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering, 'cos you've got to handle this on your own. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay and now you can expand!" He grinned madly. "You don't need me. Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum."

"Promise you won't leave?" She said.

The Doctor rummaged in his pockets. "Tell ya what." He said, pulling out something metallic, "TARDIS key. 'bout time you had one." He handed it to a Rose to act as a reassurance that he'd be back.

Satisfied, Rose went back inside. The Doctor's ploy had worked. He'd convinced her to patch things up with her mother, which she'd be better at doing with him away. In the meantime, he wouldn't be gone too long.

* * *

Mickey went to retrieve his trainers from a drying rack on his balcony. All around him people were having wild parties and hanging out banners reading _The aliens have landed!_ or _Ello ET._ Mickey wouldn't be joining them. He hardly left his flat these days. If it wasn't for work and the need to visit the supermarket, he'd shut himself in permanently, hidden from the scathing looks everyone on the estate was giving him.

Glancing at the square below, he was forced to do a double take. The TARDIS was there! The thing he'd been searching for all year. And The Doctor was marching towards it.

"DOCTOR!" He shouted and bolted for his door.

* * *

The Doctor paused for a moment when he noticed that some vandal had painted _Bad wolf_ onto the side of the TARDIS. He'd deal with that later. Right now, he just needed to make a quick trip.

Mickey lept through the front door of his block just as the TARDIS engines started up. "Wait Doctor! DOCTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!" He roared, charging at the dematerialising TARDIS. He wasn't sure what he planned to do. He was simply determined to catch this man before he disappeared again.

The TARDIS vanished a split second before he could reach it. His momentum carried him straight into the wall. The mechanic picked himself up and tried to think of a new plan. Rose hadn't been with him when he'd seen him. So maybe, just maybe, he'd find her at home.

* * *

Harriet Jones peered at Indra, sat by the cabinet room door. It wouldn't be fair to say she was pleased that he looked exhausted by the sheer level of bureaucracy that was building up. But it did give her an opening to talk to him personally. She was determined to the best for her constituents, whatever it took.

"I've brought you a coffee." She said to him. "Don't suppose anyone's brought you a coffee yet."

"Thanks." Said Indra, and took a sip. "It doesn't mean I can let you in though."

Harriet shrugged cheerily. "You've seen through my cunning plan then."

Indra got up to look through a filing cabinet across the room. He had no time for this. There was too much going on to be worrying about whatever was troubling Flysby, or wherever it was Harriet was from. But she kept berating him.

"It's just that I don't get to walk these corridors much." She was saying. "I'm not one of the babes, just a faithful backbencher. I know we've had a brave new world arrive on our doorstep, and that's wonderful. That's... probably wonderful. But ordinary life keeps ticking away as well. I need to enter this paper." But she still got no response from the secretary.

Fortunately, the acting Prime Minister chose this moment to step out of the door. "Oh, Prime Minister." She said to him. "I know you're busy, but could you please put this on the next cabinet agenda?"

"What is it?" Green asked.

"Cottage hospitals." She explained. "I've worked out a system whereby they don't have to be excluded from centres of excellency. You see my mother's in the Flydale infirmary, that's my constituency, tiny little place you wouldn't know it, and I believe that..."

"By all the Saints, get some perspective woman!" Green interrupted. "I'm busy!" He left without another word, the others trailing behind. Indra went after them, though he gave her an apologetic look as he went by.

Harriet stood, disappointed. It could be months before she'd get another chance to come here. An idea struck her as she spotted the open door to the cabinet room. She slipped inside and pulled the door shut behind her.

All she had to do was place this report somewhere prominent. With a little luck, it would be found and looked into whenever the government got itself organised. She took a moment to consider where would be a good place to leave them. It couldn't be too obvious or it would get swept aside, just like she was being. But too vague and it would never be found. Spotting a briefcase, she decided that would be best and went over to open it.

As she lifted up the file that was in there, she inadvertently read the title _Emergency Protocols._ Curiosity got the better of her and she opened the first page. She knew she shouldn't look through it. But then she shouldn't be in here anyway. She was in too deep already so it couldn't hurt to give this a read.

* * *

Toshiko was sat in the mortuary, reading an article she'd located in the UNIT files, regarding the most likely signs of an organism of extra-terrestrial origin. Looking down at her notes, she hoped she'd memorised enough to satisfy the experts when they eventually arrived.

Her concentration was broken briefly by a banging behind her. For a brief moment, she thought something was banging on the inside of one of the metal draws. She quickly cast that idea aside and returned to her reading. _ Metallic Skeletal Structures:_...

The banging came again, much more furious this time. Something was alive in those draws. And it wanted out...

* * *

The TARDIS was more suited to long flights across star systems. Short hops like this wreaked havoc with the quantum dampers. The Doctor had to flip open a panel and beat them with a rubber mallet to stop them popping out of their holdings.

Finally, it landed. He'd stopped in a storeroom of Albion hospital so as not to draw attention to himself. Satisfied with a job well done, he patted the TARDIS and made his way to the door.

He stepped out into a staff room, where about a dozen UNIT soldiers were milling about having tea. The entire room froze as he walked in, startled that anyone could have broken into a room with no windows. Seconds later, they sprang to action and shouldered their rifles, aiming at him.

Before The Doctor could reach for his psychic paper, a scream echoed from down the corridor. "Defence plan delta!" He shouted. "Come on!"

He rushed from the room and ran for the morgue. After a moment's hesitation, the soldiers ran after him. They weren't sure why, The Doctor just seemed to be the person who knew what he was doing best.

Bursting into the morgue, they found a draw hanging open and empty. On the far side of the room, doctor Sato was cowering behind some boxes. A trail of blood was running down from her scalp, though she didn't look too badly hurt.

"It's alive!" She wailed. "It got out!"

"Spread out." The Doctor said. "Tell the perimeter it's a lockdown." Once more the troops paused. "Do it!" He shouted.

"Just do what he says." Said a Sergeant. "Get moving!"

The soldiers fanned out to sweep the dimly lit building. But every room they opened was empty.

"I swear it was dead." Said Toshiko.

"Coma, shock, hibernation. Anything." The Doctor replied. "Did it speak to you? What did it look like?" Just then a low clang sounded from behind the mortuary slab as the creature knocked something over. "It's still here!" He gasped.

Getting up slowly, he beckoned over a soldier who'd been left on guard at the door. He got onto all fours to get a good look and crept round the side of the slab. Not wanting to startle it or rush into an ambush, he inched slowly round the corner, looking carefully at the far side.

Finally the creature came into view. Its face was pink and chiselled and lacking a chin. It also had a flattened button nose. The Doctor wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. The pilot was a pig. Its limbs were distorted, it stood on its hind legs and was dressed in a tiny flight suit. But it was still a pig.

"Hello." He said. The pig responded by squealing and running round the far side of the slab.

The soldier raised his rifle but The Doctor told him not to shoot.

The creature, meanwhile, raced out the door and down the corridor. At a junction, another soldier saw it coming. Without even waiting for orders, he raised his rifle and fired. The creature dropped to the ground.

"What did you do that for?" The Doctor shouted. "It was scared!" He sat next to the creature and took its trotter as it gave its last grunt.

* * *

Harriet Jones's attention was caught by an angry voice outside the door.

"I've got the White House phoning me direct because Downing Street won't answer their calls!" Asquith was shouting. "This is outrageous! You haven't even started the vaccination programme!"

Harriet hurriedly shut the briefcase. She couldn't be found in here, even if she wasn't reading top secret documents illegally. She opened the door a crack and saw Asquith talking to the acting Prime Minister and his aides. They were about to come in there.

"The nations of the world are watching Great Britain and you have done nothing. This is appalling!"

Harriet ran for the far door but found it locked. Panicking now, she found a cupboard, roughly the size of two phone boxes, which had been left ajar. She dived in and pulled the door to with seconds to spare.

"I'm sorry, it has all been a bit of a shock." Green said, as the four of them entered the room.

Harriet peered at them through the partially open door.

"Your leadership has been shameful!" Said Asquith. "We're facing a time of national emergency. We need positive leadership! The capital's ground to a halt. Furthermore, we can only assume that the Prime Minister's disappearance is the direct result of hostile alien action. And what have you been doing? Nothing!"

"Sorry. Sorry. I thought I was Prime Minister now." Green said, with a hint of glee.

"Only by default. And if needs be, I can replace you."

"Oh." Green smiled. "But I've been having _such_ fun."

"It's a hoot this job!" Margret smiled, and began to giggle merrily. The other two laughed along.

Asquith rolled his eyes. Somehow, this entire country had been put in the hands of three people who were behaving like a bunch of children. "What are you playing at?" He growled. "Where's the rest of the cabinet. Why haven't they been airlifted in?"

"I cancelled it." Green laughed. "They'd only get in the way!"

That was the last straw. "Sir!" Asquith shouted. "Under section 5 of the emergency protocols, I am relieving you of command."

Green stopped laughing. "Oh I'm scared." He said, with the air of a sarcastic school bully. "That's positively, _hair raising_ news. In fact, literally _hair raising_."

He raised up his hand to brush away his fringe. Just below his hairline was a flap of skin, almost unnoticeable. He peeled it back to reveal a zip, which he drew across his forehead. A dazzling blue light flooded from the slit.

Next to him, Margret and Oliver did the same. Asquith was rooted to the spot by confusion and alarm.

Through the gap in the door, Harriet didn't have the clearest view. But she saw the vague silhouette of some creature, seven feet tall, rising from the politician's heads, the skin slid down them like a suit. It advanced on Asquith, towering over him.

By the time Asquith regained his presence of mind, it was too late. One of the creatures had already caught him in its massive clawed arms. The moment they tore into him, Harriet had to look away and restrain the urge to be sick. Asquith's agonised screams echoed throughout the room. But several inches of heavy wood panelling and reinforced steel meant that the rest of the building was blissfully unaware.

* * *

**Author's notes: I did think for a long time about whether or not to include the fart jokes. Whilst they're relevant to the plot in places, there are ways around them. And I just think they interrupt the tension in certain scenes. If their absence produces gaps in the story later, I'll go back and re-write it.**


	3. Unwanted Attention

**Chapter 3: Unwanted Attention**

"I just assumed that was what aliens looked like." Toshiko said. "But you're telling me it's just an ordinary pig?"

"More like a mermaid." The Doctor said. "Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the scull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. They've taken an ordinary pig, cut open its brain, stuck bits on and made it dive-bomb. It must have been terrified. They've taken a live animal and turned it into a joke."

Tosh got a feeling as though there was somewhere she'd seen this Doctor before, but she could worry about that later. All her attention was focused on the pig. "So it's a fake. Like the mermaid. But the technology required to create it is beyond this world. Aliens are faking aliens! But why would they do that Doctor?" She turned to the right to see that he'd gone. "Doctor?"

* * *

It was approaching midnight but few people would be going to bed soon, whether due to bureaucracy or to partying. In the Tylers' flat, Jackie was raising a toast.

"Here's to the Martians!" She said.

"The Martians!" The room chorused, then abruptly fell silent, staring at something behind Jackie. She spun round, to see Mickey framed in the door of her living room, Cherene having let him in.

"I was gonna come see you." Rose explained. "Needed to patch things up with Mum first."

"Someone owes Mickey an apology." Said one of Jackie's friends.

"Sorry." Said Rose.

"Not you." She pointed at Jackie. "Her!"

Jackie bit her lip. She opened her mouth, then closed it again. "Well how was I supposed to know!" She said finally.

* * *

Rose had taken him to the kitchen for a private word, though Jackie thought she should know what the word was about and was sitting in.

"You just disappeared!" Mickey was saying. "And who did they turn to? The boyfriend of course. Five times I was taken in for questioning. Five times! Course, there was no evidence, why would there be? And then I had to deal with your mum, spreading things round the estate. People pointing fingers, things shoved through my door. And all 'cos of you!"

"I said I was sorry." Rose said. "I never thought I'd be gone so long."

"And I waited for you Rose. Waited for you and The Doctor to come back!"

"Hold on," said Jackie, "you knew about The Doctor and you didn't tell me where they went?"

Mickey hurriedly shut the kitchen door, where some people had been listening in. "Yeah Rose, why don't you tell her where you went? You may as well now, 'cos you're stuck here. The Doctor's gone."

"What d'ya mean?"

"He's left you! Just now, that blue box thing just faded away. Some boyfriend he turned out to be!"

Rose ran out the door without another word. Mickey went with her. Jackie's confusion and alarm were growing rapidly. She hurried after them in the hope of finding some answers.

* * *

Rose stared despairingly at the spot where the TARDIS had been parked. "He wouldn't just leave me, he promised!"

Mickey was clearly enjoying this. "Ho ho. Face it Rose, he's dumped you. Sailed off into space. Now you, are left behind like the rest of us Earthlings. Get used to it."

"But he would have said." Said Rose.

"What you two on about?" Said Jackie. "It's freezing out here, what's going on? What's this Doctor done now?"

Mickey chuckled again. "He's vamoosed!"

Rose was livid "He's not! He gave me this!" She waved the key in his face.

Mickey just sniggered. That proved nothing.

"He' not my boyfriend, Mickey! It's better than that. He's much more important than..." She paused as she saw that the key was glowing in her hand.

A gust of wind closed in on the spot where the TARDIS had been and a faint grinding sound filled the air. "Told ya so." Rose said. Alarm suddenly gripped her as she realised how Jackie might respond. "Mum. I need you to go back inside. Please, go back inside."

Instead, Jackie stepped round her daughter and up to the ever increasing roaring noise. "What's that sound?" She asked. Her jaw fell open as a blue box began to materialise in front of her, seemingly from no-where.

"How's it do that then?"

"It's the TARDIS." Said Rose. "The Doctor's an alien."

Rose stepped in, to find The Doctor looking at a screen on the console. "Alright, so I lied." He said. "I just wanted to get a better look at that alien. It's a fake. I said so. I mean, that crash was just too perfect. Hitting the clock tower like that..."

"My mum's inside." Rose interrupted.

The Doctor looked round to where Jackie was staring round the console room, pale faced. Next to her, Mickey was doing his best attempt to look enraged.

"Oh that's just what I need." He said. "Don't you dare make this place domestic."

"You ruined my life Doctor!" Mickey shouted. "They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect 'cos of you!"

"See what I mean, domestic."

"I bet you don't even remember my name."

"Course I do Rickey."

"It's Mickey."

"No, it's Rickey."

"I think I know my own name."

"You _think_ you know it? How stupid are you?"

As the two of them bickered, Jackie decided she'd had enough and ran out the door.

Rose ran after her briefly. "Mum,, it's not like that. It's..." She cut off as another concern struck her. "I'll be up in a minute, hold on!"

She turned back to the others. "Stop fighting you two. That was a real spaceship." She said, rushing up to the screen The Doctor had been looking at. "You couldn't fake that."

"Yep." The Doctor said, joining her.

"But the body was fake. So it's all a pack of lies? What is it though, are they invading?"

Despite himself, Mickey had inched forward to have his own look at the screen. "Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert." He said.

"Good point." Said The Doctor. "So what are they up to?"

* * *

Jackie paced back and forth in her room. Of all the places she'd imagined Rose being, she'd never thought outer space was even possible. Her daughter had been travelling around in a world of bug-eyed monsters and armies of plastic men, and she had no idea how to stay safe on the worlds she was visiting. Was The Doctor even safe? What could she do?

In the next room, BBC news was still playing. "As the government shows a remarkable lack of leadership, paranoia grips the country. There have been at least three report of attacks on people wrongly identified as aliens. Now back to Tom Hitchinson."

Jackie looked round the door at the screen.

"Are there more ships to come?" The reporter said. "What is their intention? The government is asking if anyone has any information. If any previous sightings have been made, then call the number on the bottom of the screen. We need your help."

Jackie grabbed the phone and dialled the number. After hitting redial several times, she got through. "Hello? I've seen one of these aliens. Yes, I've seen one. And my daughter's with him. She's not safe. Oh God, she's not safe. I've seen an alien, and I know his name. He's called The Doctor..."

_The Doctor._

"... I've been in his spaceship. It's a box, a blue box..."

_Blue box._

"... I think she said it was called the TARDIS..."

_TARDIS_

In Downing Street, an alert sounded from one of their computers.

* * *

The Doctor had crawled under the grating to tamper with some controls.

"What're you doing down there?" Mickey asked.

"Rickey..."

"Mickey." He interrupted.

The Doctor ignored him. "Rickey. If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?"

Mickey tried, and failed, to think of a clever response. "I s'pose not."

"Then shut it."

Mickey went to talk to Rose instead. "Some friend you've got."

"He's winding you up." Said Rose.

"I'd sort of guessed that." He still wasn't happy about the situation but there seemed little he could do about it.

"Look," said Rose,

"So you say."

"I am though. I never meant for it to happen."

"I looked for you. Every street corner, wherever I went, looking for a blue box for a whole year."

"It's only been a few days for me." Rose pleaded. "It's... hard to tell inside this thing but I swear, it's just a few days."

"Not enough time to miss me then." Mickey said.

"But I did miss you." She smiled, sadly.

Mickey's mouth twitched as though he wanted to smile but he was fighting against it. "And I missed you."

"So, um. In 12 months, have you been seeing anyone else?" She wouldn't blame him if he had.

"No..."

"Ok..."

"... Mainly 'cos everyone thinks I murdered you."

"Right... Sorry again."

"So... Now that you're back, will you be saying."

Rose struggled to answer. In the hope of swaying her, Mickey leaned in for a kiss, only to be interrupted by The Doctor shouting "Got it!"

"Got what?" Said Rose.

"I've patched into the ship's RADAR and looped it back 12 hours." He pointed to the screen, where a small blue dot, representing the ship, was approaching a larger blue circle. "There it is, supposedly crashing. But if you reverse it..." The dot reversed along its trajectory, swung round the spinning Earth in a massive ellipse then landed very near the spot where it had started from. "These aliens haven't just arrived, they've been here some time. The question is, what've they been doing?"

* * *

Harriet peered out from the cupboard door as a creature that appeared to be Asquith rose up from behind the cabinet table. There was not even a mark on him, minus the zip on his forehead, which he quickly tucked out of sight. Harriet also noticed something pink and black draped over one of the chairs.

"What do you think?" The creature impersonating Asquith raised its arms as if modelling a new suit. Bit bulky round the middle perhaps?"

"We ought to improve the compression." Said Margret, as she and Green cleared up the last of the blood from the varnished floor. "We could swap these bodies for thinner models."

"We've got to get rid of this skin." Said Green ,lifting up the pink and black thing.

Asquith looked around the room for a moment. Finally, his eyes settled on the cupboard. Harriet saw him marching straight for her and began to panic. Fortunately, the cupboard had a slight corner, which she hurried round and pressed herself as flat as she could against the wall.

Fortunately, the man only gave the cupboard the most cursory of glances as he tossed the thing in. "You know, I liked being Oliver." He said. "He had a wife, a mistress and a young farmer. I was kept _really_ busy." He grinned at the thought. "Oh well, I don't suppose It'll matter now."

Harriet, meanwhile had picked up the thing from the floor. Once more, she felt sick. It was Oliver's skin, the interior was lined with a collection of tiny mechanisms, presumably to simulate facial movements. a zip ran around the hairline, allowing the top section to hang off like a hood.

Just then, she heard Indra's voice outside the room. She considered finding him to warn him. But why should he believe her? And besides, whom could she trust when these creatures could impersonate anyone? Instead, she moved to the door to have a listen.

"General Asquith! We've had a code nine. Confirmed code nine!" Indra was saying.

"Code nine?" Asquith tried to sound authoritive. "Good. It would mean?"

Idnra blinked in surprise. Fortunately, it seemed people were expected to forget codes from time to time. "Well sir, in the event of an emergency, our voice recognition software is programmed to search incoming calls for certain words and phrases. And one of those words is "Doctor." We've found him sir."

Asquith assumed that this was supposed to mean something to him as well. He wished he'd had time to research this part.

Fortunately, Margret was there to ask his next question "Who is this Doctor? How can he help us."

"He's probably the world's greatest expert on extraterrestrial activities. We need him here, and we need him now."

* * *

The Doctor flipped through the TV broadcasts on the TARDIS scanner. There were reports of riots across the world, various government people making grand speeches, a ufologist appearing on a chat show with a look that said "I told you so," an American network that was having an unscheduled _X Files_ marathon...

"How many channels you got on there?" Said Mickey.

"Pretty much all of them." Said The Doctor.

"Do you get the sports channels?"

"Yes, I get the footie. Hold on," He pointed to the screen, "I know them!"

"The government is bringing in alien experts from across the globe in the hope that they may shed some light on what's going on." A newsreader announced.

"UNIT!" The Doctor said. "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people."

"You know 'em?" Said Rose.

"That's 'cos he's worked for them." Said Mickey, glad he knew something she didn't. "Don't think I sat on my backside for twelve months. I read up on you. Look deep enough on the internet and the history books and your name's all over them, followed by a list of the dead!"

"That's nice. Good boy, Rickey." The Doctor said.

"But if you know them, why not give them a call? Perhaps they can help." Rose offered.

"That was some time ago, I've changed a lot since then. They wouldn't recognise me. Besides, the real aliens'll probably want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'll have to keep quiet, go undercover. I'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight too. Rickey, you've got a car. The roads are clear now so you can drive us. First off, let's get a better look at that spaceship."

The moment they stepped out of the TARDIS, they were confronted by the roar of a helicopter overhead and a collection of sirens all around them. A spotlight shone down on them just as several police vans appeared at either end of the estate. A team of armed soldiers rushed out and formed lines across the road, their guns trained on the three of them. So much for keeping quiet.

Mickey ran for the thinnest point in the line, vaulting a bin to get past the soldiers. Two of them turned to run after him. Rose, however stayed rooted to the spot.

"This is UNIT. Step away from the box." Announced the helicopter.

"ROSE!" Jackie shouted, trying to run up to her daughter, but the soldiers held her back.

"Put your hands above your head!" The helicopter continued.

Rose looked around at all the armed guards in alarm. The Doctor, however, looked pleased. "Take me to your leader." He grinned.


	4. Number 10

**Chapter 4: Number 10**

Mickey dashed down an alleyway, over a fence and through a beer garden. The soldiers easily kept pace, but he knew the area better and knew there was a gap between two bins round the next corner. Sure enough, once he'd hidden himself in, the soldiers ran straight past him, thinking he'd continued onwards.

But with police still circling the area, he thought it best to stay put for a bit.

* * *

To Rose's surprise, she was escorted not to one of the vans but two a Jag that had arrived with them. The interior was one of the plushest she'd ever sat in.

"If I'd known this was what being arrested was like Id've done it years ago."

"We're not being arrested." Said The Doctor. "We're being escorted!"

"To where?"

"Downing Street."

Rose paused for a moment. "Downing Street?"

"Yep."

"10 Downing Street!"

They laughed together.

"I can't believe it!" Rose laughed. "I'm going to Ten Downing Street! How come?"

"Mickey was right. Over the years, I've been to this planet a lot. And I've been... noticed."

"And now they need you?"

"They said on the news they were gathering alien experts. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

Rose thought for a moment. "Patrick Moore?"

"Apart from him!"

She laughed. "You're loving this aint ya?"

"I've got good memories of that place. Lloyd George used to just drink me under the table! Who's the Prime Minister now anyway?"

"How should I know, I've missed a year."

* * *

Even to someone who'd been to the end of the Earth, stepping out of a car outside Britain's most famous front door was an incredibly surreal experience. Somehow this still seemed like the sort of place she'd never be invited to go.

Rose employed a great deal of effort to prevent herself from grinning and giving all the photographers a cheery wave. Instead, walking up the steps with the same quiet dignity she'd seen people on the news doing. She looked back to see The Doctor grinning and giving the photographers a cheery wave.

A policeman opened the door for them and they stepped through into an entrance hall, before being led to a room full of alien experts.

* * *

Most of the police had followed the Jag out. A few, however, had stayed to answer some of the locals' questions. A handful had accompanied Jackie back to her flat.

"So she's alright then?" Jackie said. "She's not in any sort of trouble?"

Their sergeant shrugged. "All I can say is that your daughter and her companion may have information that can help the country." He turned to his officers. "Alright you lot, you can go. I need to speak to Mrs Tyler alone."

Once they'd gone, he asked Jackie to make them some tea. She admitted she did need some and went off to the kitchen. The Sergeant touched his finger to his earpiece. "What should I do about the mother, sir?" He said quietly.

"We can't have her asking awkward questions." Green's voice replied. "Get rid of her."

* * *

Harriet made her way down the stairs and towards the room where all the experts were waiting, keeping as calm as possible. Outside the door, a guard made to stop her, but she waved her ID at him and strolled past. She shouldn't be allowed in but internal checks were a matter of routine anyway.

Somewhere in the crowd she now found herself in was a Doctor, who may be able to help. But which was it?

By the door, Asquith and Green were chatting nonchalantly. For all outward appearances, there was no indication as to what they hid inside. Nor that they'd just murdered the real Asquith in cold blood. She tried not to look them in the eye as she passed.

"Alright everyone." Indra marched through the room at this point. "Could we all move through please. ID cards must be worn. Oh, Doctor, here's yours." He handed a card on a chain to a man dressed in leather. "I'm afraid your assistant will have to wait outside."

"I never go anywhere without her." The Doctor replied.

"Excuse me, are you The Doctor?" Harriet rushed up to him, but Indra put out an arm to stop her.

"Look Harriet, just drop it." He said. "I'm sorry Doctor but you're the code nine. She's not."

"I just need a word, that's all." Harriet insisted.

"Can't you just go home?"

"I never go anywhere without her." Said The Doctor, not paying attention to Harriet.

"It's fine, I can wait." Said the girl.

The Doctor shrugged and followed the experts into the next room.

"I'll leave her with security." Indra said.

"That's alright." Harriet seized a new opportunity. "I'll look after her. May as well be of some use."

Indra opened his mouth to object but could think of no reason why not. He turned to get on with his work, while Harriet led Rose down a corridor.

"Harriet Jones. MP for Flydale North." She introduced herself. "Walk with me. Just keep walking. Don't look back."

Rose sensed a lot of fear in the woman's voice and manner.

Once they were out of earshot of everyone, Harriet ceased trying to appear nonchalant. Now staring wildly at the younger girl. "This friend of yours, he's an expert on alien creatures, isn't he?"

"Yeah. Why."

"Because I've seen... I've seen..." Harriet couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. Instead, she broke down crying.

* * *

Asquith stood up to address the conference room. The attendees were just finishing reading the reports they'd been given.

"As you can see." He said "The ship that crashed had a single porcine occupant..."

He was cut by The Doctor standing up to give a lecture of his own. "Course the really interesting bit happened three days ago, filed away under _Any other business_. One of your ships picked up a blip under the North Sea, tiny little thing, about seven fathoms deep. You were just about to investigate it when all this happens! Ship crashes into Big Ben. Whole world panicking. All to divert out attention. But from what? What're they really up to?"

* * *

Harriet had led Rose to the cabinet room to show her the skin suit she'd left behind.

"They used the skin like a costume. A disguise for the thing inside."

The MP seemed on the verge of tears again so Rose put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, I believe ya." She had a look around the room then went to run her hand over some of the panelling. "It's alien, so they must have some serious technology here." She felt under the desk and stamped on the floorboards. "If we can find it then maybe..."

She pulled open a cupboard and a body fell out onto the floor with a thump. Not a skin suit, a full body. And the girls recognised it.

Hearing the thump, Indra stormed in to investigate. "For the love of God Harriet, this has gone far enough! You cannot just barge in here and..." He cut off spotting the body on the floor. "That's the prime Minister!"

* * *

"Oh." Said Margret. "Had someone been naughty?" She stepped into the room and shut the door behind her.

"If aliens fake an alien crash..." The Doctor continued. "What do they get?"

He fell silent for a moment as cold a realisation hit him. "Us. They get us. It's not a diversion, It's a trap."

* * *

"It's bigger on the inside." Jackie said, as she prepared another cup. "Why you asking me? What do I know about spaceships?"

"That's what troubles me." The Sergent said. "That Doctor is trouble." He peered round the ajar door at her. "And everyone associated with him. That's my job you see. He lifted his hat and fumbled for a zip in his forehead. "Eliminating trouble."

* * *

"That's impossible!" Indra insisted. "The Prime Minister left. He got in his car!"

"And who told you that?" Margret grinned wickedly. "Me!" She peeled back her hairline and drew a zip across her forehead.

* * *

"This is all about us!" The Doctor said. "The only people with the knowledge of how to fight them gathered together in one room. But what are they planning?"

"Shall we let him finish?" Said Asquith. "Or put him out of his misery?"

"Put them all out of their misery, I think." Said Green.

Asquith peeled the zip from his skin and drew it across his forehead. A bright blue glow flooded the room.

Sparks flew around the edges of the skin suit as the creature pulled it down. First a rounded green head emerged, with huge black eyes. As it dragged the disguise down further, a huge muscle bound torso was revealed. It drew long clawed arms from the sleeves. Stepping out revealed that the legs were similarly proportioned.

"We are the Slitheen." The creature said.

* * *

Jackie glanced backwards to see a bright blue glow shining through the gaps in the doorway. She was struck dumb. All she could think to do was to edge forward and see what was going on.

In her living room, a massive green creature was peeling away the last of its skin suit. A skin suit covered by a police uniform. It closed in on the kitchen door, towering over her, cornering her inside. She backed against the counter, screaming as the creature advanced on her.

* * *

The creature that had emerged from Margret seized Indra by the throat and raised him up against the wall. The man kicked and struggled, but to no avail.

Rose tried to dodge around it, but got beaten back as it swiped at her with its free arm. Harriet just stood stunned.

* * *

"Thank you for wearing your IDs." Said Green. "It'll help us to identify the bodies."

He pressed a button on the desk. A small but powerful electrical device in the nametags they all wore activated, sending 200 Volts coursing through each and every one of them.

The experts grasped desperately at their chains but the shocks were preventing their muscles from working in unison.

At the front of the room, the Slitheen just stood laughing.


	5. The Hunt

_**Doctor**: There's something we have to do now, but I'm not sure what it is. **Companion**: Run up and down lots of corridors! **Doctor**: Right!_ - Taken from a Lenny Henry sketch.

**Chapter 5 - The Hunt**

The unmasked Slitheen advanced and towered over The Doctor, still cackling like a cartoon villain. It abruptly fell silent as the electrical charge which was engulfing the man dissipated. Somehow he'd removed the tag from round his throat and now held it, still sparking madly, in his hand.

"Deadly to humans, maybie." He said and promptly jammed it into the communicator round the Slitheen's neck.

The circuitry in the device was similar to that of the communicators and their close proximity boosted the signal, causing 200 Volts to abruptly discharge into every Slitheen within communication range. It wasn't deadly to them either, but it did paralyse them with pain.

Green dropped the device he'd used to activate the charges and The Doctor hurriedly snatched it up. A few seconds hitting buttons revealed that it was isomorphic and wouldn't respond to him. There was no way to save the alien experts. But at least he could stop the aliens killing again.

* * *

Up in the cabinet rooms, Margret too lit up with electricity. Rose had still been trying to dodge around her and was abruptly thrown across the room, knocking down Harriet in the process. This seemed to shock the MP back to action and the two of them picked themselves up and made a run, round the creature, to the door. They weren't sure how this had happened but they knew they needed to make the most of it.

* * *

Jackie was equally shocked by the monster abruptly lighting up, but the fact that it was still blocking her kitchen doorway made it impossible to get out.

Just then, something wooden slammed into the creature from the side. It staggered into one of the kitchen counters, revealing Mickey, stood there with the remains of one of her chairs in his hands.

"Jackie." He said. "This way." He took her hand and led the frightened woman round the Slitheen and towards the door. A thought occurred to him and he turned back to take a quick picture of the electrified alien before resuming running.

* * *

Summoning all his strength, Green reached over and grabbed the tag from his fellow-Slitheen's neck. The charge engulfing both of them promptly stopped.

"Quickly," he cried, "get your disguise back on!"

* * *

The Doctor had found a corridor nearby where a group of armed men stood guard.

"Oi!" He called to them. "You want aliens, they're right here in Downing Street! Follow me!"

They followed him back down the hall and into the briefing room, where they found corpses lying everywhere. Asquith and Green were stood at the front, hurriedly fixing the General's suit. They abruptly jumped apart as the people rushed in. Sadly no-one noticed since their attention was caught by the bodies.

"Where have you been?" Green shouted at them. "I called for help. I sounded the alarm. There was this... sort of... Lightning! They all collapsed!"

A corporal was checking their pulses. "I think they're all dead sir!"

"That's what I'm saying." Green said and pointed to The Doctor. "He killed them!"

The Doctor smiled "I think you'll find that the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise who's..." Having said this out loud, he abruptly realised how absurd it sounded. "You're not buying this are ya'?"

The Corporal shook his head.

"Fair enough." The Doctor bolted out the door.

Most of the guards, along with Asquith ran after him. The Corporal grabbed his radio. "Man in leather's sir, trying to escape. He'd killed the experts."

Sergent Scott was stood by the door to the security office when he heard the message. He looked over to see The Doctor running towards them, hoping to find his companion.

The man stopped dead as he heard the message, then turned to run as Scott reached for his sidearm.

"Shoot him!" Asquith roared.

The guards had never shot a man before. Much less an unarmed man running away. Though Scott did manage to pull the trigger, his shot went wild and slammed harmlessly into the panelling as The Doctor disappeared down another corridor.

* * *

Rose and Harriet had almost made it to the stairs before the older woman suddenly halted and grabbed Rose. "The files! The emergency protocols! We need them!"

They ran back to grab the only copy she would ever have access to, only to run straight into a recovered Slitheen, bursting out of the room.

The two of them instinctively threw themselves down a corridor which would take them away from the creature. Too late, they realised that this put it between them and the only way out.

They ran down the corridor and into another panelled room, where Rose paused to slam the door in Margret's face. This bought them a few seconds to put some distance between them and it.

The creature quickly recovered and batted the door aside. Ahead of her, Rose was disappearing into the next room and locking the door behind her. She ran through, this time battering the door down and bursting out. Fortunately, Rose and Harriet had found a place to hide and Margret missed them as she charged through.

* * *

The Doctor too was racing down a corridor. He abruptly came to a halt as some guards appeared in the passage ahead. He was trapped. But then again, maybe not...

Asquith pushed his way through. "By the durastiction of the emergency protocols, I authorise you to..."

By pure luck he had to pause for breath and The Doctor used this to interrupt. "Ah, you see. Quick word of advice: If you want to back someone against the wall to, um, execute them. Don't back them against the lift!"

He'd timed it perfectly to end just as the lift pinged onto the ground floor and promptly leapt back. He waved the sonic and the doors slammed shut behind him.

He took the lift up to the first floor. The doors opened up to reveal Margret roaring at him. Behind her, Harriet was in the middle of shouting "This way!" Before she abruptly came to a halt, seeing the Slitheen blocking their way.

Margret spun back and forth. The Doctor was shutting the doors again so she decided to go after Rose and Harriet as they bolted through another doorway.

* * *

"I repeat." Asquith told the guards. "The upper floors are quarantined, you are to seal them off. Disregard all previous instructions, you will take your orders directly from me."

They stepped into the lift. The Doctor having abandoned it on the second floor.

"Respectfully sir." Scott insisted. "You must come with me. We should evacuate the entire building."

Green rolled his eyes. "Sergeant, have you read the emergency protocols?"

"Well... No sir."

"Then do as you're told. Seal off the ground floor. And if the Doctor or his companions come down, shoot them!"

The lift doors closed between them.

Scott blinked in surprise for a few moments. It was his job to keep the politicians safe and he was being ordered to go against this. Still, orders were orders. "You heard him! Take up positions by the stairs and the lifts!"

In the lift, Green was fiddling with his collar. "These skin suits are stifling." He moaned. "I need to be naked!"

"Rejoice in it." Asquith replied. "Your body is magnificent."

They each reached up and undid their zips, emerging relieved from their disguises.

"Let the sport begin." Said Asquith.

* * *

Margret smashed aside the latest door that Rose had slammed behind her and found herself in the Prime Minister's lounge. The other door to the room was kept locked, so she knew the women must be hiding in here.

"Oh such fun." She sang. "Little human children. Where are you? Sweet little humikins, come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green, lips!"

Rose and Harriet cowered deeper into their hiding places.

* * *

Having got off on the second floor, The Doctor made his way down the stairs and along a corridor. No guards here, always a good thing.

Spotting two green figures emerging from the lift ahead, he hurriedly ducked behind a door.

Fortunately, the Slitheen seemed not to notice him and strolled past. Green was saying "We'll keep this floor quarantined as our last hiding ground before the final phase."

Once they'd passed, The Doctor stepped out from behind the door and tiptoed after them.

The creatures found Margret in the room where Rose and Harriet were hiding. She was sniffing every inch of the room. "My brothers." She greeted them.

"Happy hunting?" Said Asquith.

"Splendid." She replied. "The more you prolong it, the more they smell."

"Sweat, and fear, these humans reek of it." Said Asquith.

"I smell an old girl." Green smiled. "Stale perfume and brittle bones." Though he couldn't yet tell which direction the smell was coming from.

Margret, meanwhile was prowling along the windows. "I smell a small girl. All cosmetics and hormones. Fresh enough to bend before she snaps!" She snatched a curtain and ripped it aside, revealing the girl from the council estate hiding behind.

Before she could move in for the kill, however, several things happened very quickly. First, Harriet burst out from behind a sofa and screamed "No! Take me first! I'm old!" The Slitheen spun around in confusion for a few moments, before The Doctor burst in with a fire extinguisher, spraying it over the monsters. Rose yanked down the curtain pole and threw the sheet over Margret, further adding to the confusion.

"Everyone out now!" The Doctor roared and the girls rushed to join him at the door

"Who are you?" He shouted at Harriet.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."

"Nice ta meet you Harriet."

"Likewise."

He sprayed the rest of the co2 over the Slitheen then turned to run.

They hurried down a series of panelled corridors and though wide halls. Behind them, they heard a rapid thump thump thump as the Slitheen bounded after them.

"Cabinet rooms!" Harriet shouted. "The emergency protocols are still there, they may help!" She was finally starting to get her head together after the initial shock.

"Harriet, I like you already." The Doctor shouted.

The Slitheen were gaining. Margret was taunting them by humming the _Benny Hill_ theme.

Finally they reached the cabinet rooms. The Doctor grabbed a bottle of port off the table and held his sonic up to it. "One more step and my sonic device will triplicate the flamability of this alcohol and we'll all go up in smoke. So back off!"

The Slithenn did as he said.

"Right," said The Doctor. "question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen."

"They're aliens." Said Harriet.

"Yeah, I got that, thanks."

"And who are you if not human?" Said Green.

"What's not human?" Harriet said, before The Doctor could answer.

"He's not human." Said Rose.

"He's not human!"

"Can I have some hush please." The Doctor said. "So... what's the plan?"

But Harriet wasn't done. "But he's got a northern accent."

"Lots of planets have a north." Said Rose.

"I said hush!" The Doctor finally silenced them, then turned back to the Slitheen. "You've got a spaceship hidden under the Thames, transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for? Invasion?"

"Why would we invade this miserable little rock?" Said Asquith.

"Well something's brought the Slitheen race here."

"Slitheen race?" Asquith sounded appalled by the idea.

"Slitheen is the family name." Green explained. "I am Jocrassa Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen."

"So you're family?" Said The Doctor.

"The family business." Said Jocrassa Fel-Fotch... The Doctor decided it was simpler just to think of him as being called Joseph Green.

"So this is business? That means you're out to make a profit. How can you do this on a God forsaken rock?"

But a thought had occurred to Asquith. "Er, what did you say you were going to do? Triplicate the flammability of the alcohol?"

"That's what I said."

"You're making it up!"

"Oh well, nice try." He handed the bottle over his shoulder. "Harriet, have a drink. You're goanna need it."

"You pass it to the left first." Said the MP.

"Sorry." He handed it to Rose, who took a hasty swig.

"And so the hunt ends with a slaughter." Asquith sang, sharpening his claws.

"Shouldn't we run?" Rose asked, though there was logically no-where to run to.

"Interesting history about Downing Street." The Doctor said. The others, both human and Slitheen, paused to blink in surprise. "2000 years ago, this was marshland. 1730, it was occupied by a mister chicken, he was a nice man. 1790, this was the cabinet room. If the cabinet is in session and in danger, these are about the four safest walls in the whole of The United Kingdom! End of lesson." He hit a button on a wall. Steel blast doors slammed shut between him and the Slitheen. Similar doors slammed shut on the far door and all the windows.

"Installed in 1993." The Doctor explained. "Three inches of steel lining every wall. They'll never get in."

"But how do we get out?" Said Rose.

"Ah..."

* * *

"He's safely contained." Said Green. "Now cut off communications with that room and summon the family. It's time we finished with this insane planet for good!"


	6. Trapped

**Chapter 6: Trapped**

Mickey led Jackie out through a fire exit. A small number of police and soldiers were still guarding the estate, but they were all engaged in stopping people entering the area and none of them noticed the two people hurrying away from one block, to a fire exit in the next, where the door was open a crack.

* * *

In Downing street, the press pack were clamouring for information with all the eagerness of a group of nerds awaiting the latest films.

There was still no word from anyone in power. Their only clues were the people going in. But these only added to the confusion. The press moved forward once more as three cars pulled up in quick succession. From the first stepped Group Captain Tennant-James of the RAF. Next was Ewen McCalister, deputy secretary for the Scottish Parliament. Finally, and most bafflingly, Silvia Berlaine, chairwoman of the North Sea Boating Club.

* * *

If the press and the public were confused, Sergeant Scott was positively disorientated. He'd never studied politics but he'd got a feel for how things worked around here, having been on guard for long enough. Normally, there was some sort of pattern to the sorts of people who would attend each secret talk. Here they were just piling together at random.

"Ah, Sergeant." Asquith found him. "Now that The Doctor's been neutralised, the upper levels are out of bounds, to everyone."

Scott looked at the Group Captain, the secretary and the chairwoman whom Margret was leading up the stairs. This was even more baffling. The higher ups needed an almost-constant group of underlings around to take notes, transfer messages and find documents. And now they were planning to deal with an alien arrival in complete isolation? Once more he reminded himself that his was not to reason why.

"I need you to liaise with public relations." Asquith continued. "The acting Prime Minister's going to make an address. He will speak to the nations of the world."

"Um, certainly sir." The Sergeant replied. At least that felt more regular. But then he wasn't sure what should feel regular at this time.

* * *

Upstairs, Margret was guiding the new arrivals into an antechamber.

"Just through there." She said to Berlaine. "If you'd just like to get changed." as the chairwoman stepped through into a room lit by a bright blue glow, Margret stepped over to the far door, where Tennant-James was emerging, his skin suit draped over his arm. Margret took the suit and threaded it over a coat hanger. "We're meeting just through there." She said.

There was a small crowd of about 20 Slitheen gathering in the Prime minister's lounge.

"That all of us?" Green said.

"All except Sec Fel-Fotch." Said Margret. "He's found a hunt of his own."

* * *

Mickey and Jackie had regrouped in his kitchen, where he was preparing a large pot of tea.

"You got anything stronger?" She said.

"Oh no." Said Mickey. "I've seen you when you've had a few, this aint no time for a conga."

Jackie sat down and thought. "We should tell someone."

"Who do we trust? For all we know anyone could have big green monsters inside of 'em."

"Does The Doctor have a big green thing inside of him?"

Mickey thought for a moment. "I wouldn't put it past him. This is what he does Jacks, death and destruction follow him everywhere. And he's got Rose right in the middle of it. But, like it or not, he's the only one who knows how to fight these things."

Jackie began to sob. "I thought I was gonna die." It wasn't like running from the Autons as they killed indiscriminately. Someone had actually targeted her, and her alone.

Mickey awkwardly put an arm around her. "No, no. Don't cry. If anyone's gonna' cry, it's me! You're safe here. No-one's gonna think you're here since you hate me so much."

Jackie sighed. "You saved my life though... That's embarrassing."

"You're telling me."

"He wanted me dead. And he's still out there Mickey. That policeman. That... thing."

* * *

The Police Sergeant came out of the block and went to approach a small group of PCs, who were observing a lock picker trying to get into the TARDIS.

"No luck sir." One of them said. "And there's no record of the box at the station. Why are we trying to get in?"

"Curiosity, that's all." The Sergeant lied, as he picked up a familiar scent in the air. "Never mind. You head off, inform control I've a few thing that still need doing. I haven't quite finished with Mrs Tyler yet."

* * *

In the cabinet rooms, The Doctor was dragging the bodies into the corner cupboard.

"What was this one called?" He asked. "The secretary, what was his name?"

Harriet thought for a moment. "I don't know. I spoke to him, I brought him a coffee. I never asked for his name." She admitted.

The Doctor closed the man's eyes. "Sorry." Was all he could say. He turned back to Rose, who was running her hands over all the panelling and under the tables. "What've we got? Any terminals?"

"Nope, this place is antique." His companion replied. "There's something I don't get, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"Bad fit probably. They're big beasts. They need to fit inside big humans."

"But they're, what 8 feet tall? How do they fit in, in the first place."

"Compression field. Shrinks them down to size."

"Wish I had a compression field. I could get a size smaller."

"Excuse me!" Harriet cried. "People have died. This is no time for making jokes."

"Sorry. You, sort of, get used to it when you travel with him."

"Well that's a strange friendship."

Harriet looked over at The Doctor, who was looking her up and down. "Harriet Jones..." He said. "I'm sure I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones. You're not famous are for anything you?"

"Hardly." Said the MP. "Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid. And a fat lot of good I am here. These protocols are redundant now. They list the people who can help and they're all dead downstairs."

"Hasn't it got, like, defence codes and things?" Said Rose. "We could set off a nuclear bomb and wipe 'em all out!"

Harriet raised an eyebrow. "You're a very violent girl."

"I'm serious, we could."

"Well there's nothing like that in here. Nuclear weapons do need release codes, yes, but its kept secret by the United Nations."

"Say that again?" Said The Doctor.

"What, about the codes?"

"About anything. All of it."

"Well, the United Kingdom cannot gain access to atomic weapons without a special resolution from the UN."

"Like that's ever stopped them before." Said Rose.

"I know, given our past record. And I voted against it thank you very much. The ability to launch nukes was taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is this important?"

"Right now, everything's important." Said The Doctor.

Harriet sighed. "If we only knew what the Slitheen want. Listen to me, I'm saying the name as if it's a normal thing."

"What do they want though?" Said Rose.

"Well, they're just one family so it's not an invasion. They don't want Slitheen world." Said The Doctor. "They're out to make a profit, so they must want something. Something here on Earth. Some asset."

"Gold?" Harriet offered. "Oil perhaps? Water! Maybe?"

The Doctor smiled. "You're good at this."

"Thank you."

"Harriet Jones. Where have I heard that name before?"

They were interrupted by Rose's phone beeping.

"But we're sealed off, how did you get a signal?" Said Harriet.

"He zapped it. Super phone." Said Rose.

"Then we can call for help! You must have contacts."

"Yeah." Said The Doctor. "Dead downstairs."

Well there went that idea.

"It's from Mickey." Said Rose.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy!"

"Maybe he's not so stupid." Rose replied. She turned the phone to show The Doctor. There was no text in Mickey's message, just a picture of a Slitheen, lit up with electricity

Jackie was looking round Mickey's room. Every shelf and desk was lined with files, star charts and blurred photographs. When she'd asked, Mickey had said something about continuing Clive's research in the hope of finding Rose.

But now Mickey was on the phone to Rose. "... No, no. Not just alien, but proper alien. All slimy and green and stinking and everything! I tell ya what else. It tried to kill us!"

"I could have died!" Jackie said in the direction of the phone.

"Is she alright though?" Rose said. "Don't put her on just tell me."

The Doctor halted their conversation by grabbing the phone off her. "Is it Rickey? Listen, don't talk just go to your computer."

"It's Mickey, and why should I?"

"Mickey the idiot. I might just choke before I finish this sentence but, er, I need you."

Mickey narrowly decided that the situation didn't call for another bout of smugness.

"I've tried to hack 'em three times, Doctor." Mickey said as he opened up the access page for the UNIT database. "Do you know the password?"

The Doctor was plugging the phone into a speaker in the table, designed for conference calls. "Buffalo." He said "Two Fs, one L."

"What's that website?" Said Jackie.

"All the secret information known to man." Mickey explained. "See, they've known about aliens for years and they've just kept us in the dark."

"Mickey, you were born in the dark." Said The Doctor.

"Oh leave him alone." Said Rose.

"It says password again." Said Mickey.

"Just keep typing buffalo. It's the governments emergency override in case anyone discovers the smaller passwords." Naturally no hacker had ever discovered this, as their software would encrypt the local passwords before it found it.

As Mickey continued to type, The Doctor paced around, pondering some more. "Why did they hit Big Ben? What do they gain?"

"You said to gather the experts, to kill them." Harriet said, pouring three more glasses of port.

"That lot would gather for a whether balloon. You don't need to crash a spaceship in the middle of London. There's some other reason, they want the whole world panicking."

"The Slitheen are hiding." Said Rose. "But then they put the whole planet on red alert. What would they do that for?"

"Oh, listen to her!" Said Jackie's voice on the phone.

"At least I'm trying!"

"Well I've got a question, if you don't mind. 'cos since that man walked into our lives, I have been attacked in the streets. I have had creatures from the pits of Hell in my living room and I have had my daughter disapear off the face of the Earth."

"I've told you what happened." Rose sighed.

"I'm talking to him! 'cos I've seen this life of yours Doctor. And maybe you get off on it. And maybe you think it's clever. But answer me this: Is my daughter safe?"

"I'm fine!" Said Rose.

"That's not what I asked. Is she safe? Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that?"

Rose looked towards The Doctor, who was looking awkwardly at his shoes.

"Well what's the answer?" Jackie pushed.

The Doctor tried hard to look calm. Sadly, there was no simple answer to this problem.

Fortunately, he was interrupted by Mickey. "We're in."

The Doctor hurried over to the phone. "Now, in the corner, there's a tab. Like concentric circles. Click it."

"He'll have to answer me some day." Jackie muttered.

Mickey clicked on the tab. He was promptly linked to a UNIT satellite, designed for picking up unusual signals. It had been following a strange warbling echo from a source in the North Sea for about three days now. The sound emitted from the computer's speakers and over the phone.

"How does that help?" Said Rose.

"I need to listen to the signal, find out what it's saying." Said The Doctor. "Now hush, I need to listen."

A buzzing sound came over the phone.

"I said hush!"

"That's not us." Said Mickey. "I think someone's at the door."

The doorbell buzzed again.

"It's three o' clock in the morning?" Said Jackie.

"Well go an' tell them that."

"It's beaming out into space. Who's it for?" The Doctor wondered.

Jackie, meanwhile had pulled open Mickey's front door, only to be greeted by the police sergeant who'd attacked her earlier.

"Mrs Tyler." It snarled.

Jackie quickly slammed the door and double locked it. "It's him!" She shouted. "It's the Sliceen!"

"They've found us." Mickey said into the phone.

"I need that signal." The Doctor insisted.

"Never mind the signal!" Shouted Rose. "Get out!"

"We can't, it's by the front door." Said Mickey.

That same eerie blue glow flooded through the cracks round the door. Clearly, another eight-foot creature with claws was rising from the Sergeant. Mickey grabbed a baseball bat in the hope of at least putting up some fight.

"There must be some way of stopping them!" Harriet cried. "You're supposed to be the alien expert! Think of something!"

"I'm trying!" The Doctor roared.

"I'll fight it." Mickey said. "You just run Jacks."

Jackie now wished she had time to apologise for any bad thing she'd ever said about Mickey.

"That's my mother." Rose said, looking pale.

Over the phone, the sounds of creaking and splintering could be heard as the Slitheen hammered on the door.

"Right!" Said The Doctor. "If we're 'gona find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to about 5000 planets within travelling distance. So, what else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green!" Said Rose.

"Narrows it down."

"Er, good sense of smell."

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell hormones!"

"Narrows it down."

Another crunching sound travelled through the phone. Having just seen these creatures tear through mahogany panelling, they doubted Mickey's battered front door would hold up for long.

"The pig technology!" Harriet suggested.

"Narrows it down."

"Spaceship in the Thames. You said "slipstream engine"!" Rose shouted.

"Narrows it down."

The Slitheen struck again. This time the ends of its claws jabbed through, into Mickey's flat.

"They hunt like it's a ritual!" Rose shouted desperately.

"Narrows it down."

"Wait a minute." Said Harriet. "Did you notice, there's a smell in their breath, and when they unmask the rooms flooded with it. That slime they're covered with smells of bad breath!"

"Calcium decay!" The Doctor declared. "Now that narrows it down!"

"We're getting there Mum." Rose called.

"Too late!" Shouted Mickey. The creature had torn a small hole in the door now and was ripping it away, a chunk at a time.

"Calcium decay." The Doctor thought aloud. "Calcium phosphate. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else, what else... Oh! Hyphenated surname! That narrows it down to one planet! Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

"Oh great." Said Mickey. "We can send them a postcard!"

The creature smashed through the remains of the door. The Slitheen clambered over the remains, snarling at them. The baseball bat in Mickey's hands suddenly felt as though it was made of rubber.


	7. Massive Weapons of Destrution

**Chapter 7: Massive Weapons of Destruction**

"Mickey." The Doctor shouted. "Get in the kitchen!"

For want of a better plan, Mickey and Jackie hurried through the door. They wedged a chair under the handle in a feeble effort to barricade themselves in but it was only a couple of seconds before the creature slammed itself into the door. This door was even flimsier than the last and splinters started flying with his first smash.

"Living calcium, weakened by compression. Acetic acid should break the bonds." The Doctor shouted. "Have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?" Mickey shouted.

"It's your kitchen!"

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf." Said Rose. It was where Mickey kept all his condiments, though he rarely used any since his diet was chiefly ready meals.

The Slitheen struck again, a large crack apeared in the middle of the door.

Jackie snatched the phone off Mickey. "What do you need?"

"Vinegar, lots of it." Said The Doctor.

"Just like Hannibal!" Said Harriet.

"Just like Hannibal!"

Jackie flung open the cupboard. Mickey had no malt vinegar, but she found plenty of other sources of the stuff. She grabbed a jug by the sink and poured in a jar of picked onions, followed by some pickled eggs, then some gherkins. It occurred to her that Rose must have a strong stomach if she'd kissed this man.

The Slitheen struck again. This time the door shattered before him. As Mickey scrambled backwards, the creature reared itself above him, roaring a Raxacoricofallapatorian battle cry.

Jackie screamed but flung the vinegar over the Slitheen anyway. It gasped in pain as its skin hissed and bubbled. Finally, it exploded, splattering over everything within five metres. Jackie and Mickey included.

The three in the cabinet room let out a sigh of relief.

"Hannibal?" Said Rose.

"Hannibal Barca, crossed the Alps, dissolving boulders with vinegar." Harriet explained.

"Well here's to vinegar then." Rose toasted the three of them.

* * *

Asquith found Green straightening up his tie in the entrance hall, though his eyes were miles away.

"Sec Fel-Fotch Slitheen is dead." He muttered to the acting Prime Minister.

"I know." Said Green. "I felt it. How did it happen?"

"Someone must've got lucky."

"Well that's the last piece of luck anyone on this rock's going to have."

Green stepped out of the front door and took his place on the press stand, where a collection of microphones had been set up to hear what he had to say.

"Nations of the world." he began, "Humankind. The world greatest alien experts gathered here tonight. They gathered in the common cause. But the news I bring you now is grave indeed..."

* * *

Mickey was in the process of wiping chunks of Slitheen from his face when he heard the start of Green's address on his telly. "Listen to this." He said and held the phone up to the speaker so The Doctor could listen in.

"... The experts are dead." Green said. "Murdered right in front of me by alien hands. It is clear to us that these visitors do not come in peace. Our operatives have searched the skies above our heads and found evidence of massive weapons of destruction, capable of being deployed within 45 seconds!"

"What?" Said The Doctor.

"... Our technicians can baffle the alien probes. But not for long. We face extinction, unless we strike first! The United kingdom stands directly beneath the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival. Because, from this moment on, it is my solemn duty to inform you... Planet Earth is at war."

* * *

He's makin' it up!" The Doctor declared. "There's no weapons up there."

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Said Harriet.

"They did last time." Said Rose.

"That's why they went for spectacle." Said The Doctor "They want the world panicking. 'cos you lot, you get scared. You lash out."

"So they get the codes." Said Rose. "Then what?"

The Doctor presses a button on the wall. The steel shutters opened up, to reveal a handful of Slitheen stood guard outside.

"You get the codes." He said to the startled creatures. "You launch. But not into space 'cos there's nothing there. You attack every country on Earth. Their defence systems automatically retaliate. World war 3. Whole planet goes nuclear."

"While we sit it out in our spaceship, at the bottom of the Thames." Margret stepped through the group. "Not crashed, just parked. Barely two minutes away."

"But you'll destroy this whole world!" Said Harriet. "This beautiful planet. What for?"

"Profit." Said The Doctor. "That's the signal beaming out into space. An advert."

"Sale of the century." Margret grinned. "We reduce the earth to molten slag then sell it, piece by piece. Radioactive chunks, Doctor. Capable of powering every freighter and cut price star liner in the galaxy. There's a recession out there. People are buying cheep. This rock becomes pure fuel."

"At the cost of 6 billion lives." The Doctor said.

"Bargain." Said Margret.

"Then I give you a choice. Leave this planet, or I'll stop you."

The Slitheen all laughed. "What?" Said Margret. "You? Trapped in your box."

"Yes. Me." He fixed Margret with a steely glare as he reached for the button once more. As the doors slammed shut, he just had time to see a look of concern creeping over the woman's face.

* * *

Morning dawned over a world of utter silence. No schools were open. Few were at work. The streets, which had been so packed the day before, were deserted. Almost every family in the civilised world was huddled round the nearest news source. Some were building rudimentary bomb shelters out of whatever they had lying around, though even they doubted how much use their defences would be once the aliens started firing.

Across the Atlantic, the UN were meeting in New York to discuss the fate of the world. Every media outlet was staring intently at them, awaiting their decision.

* * *

In Downing street. Green, Margret and Asquith solemnly made their way towards the stairs.

"Sergeant." Green said as he passed Scott at the bottom of the stairs. "We'll take the call in the Prime Minister's office. You all maintain your position down here." He reached out to shake the man's hand. "Good luck, all of you."

The moment they were out of earshot, the Slitheen promptly abandoned all dignity and fell about giggling. They proceeded to the Prime Minister's office, where Margret was delighted to discover that the phone was actually red, just like in all those films.

"How long until they make the call?" Green asked, sounding like a child awaiting sweets. "

* * *

"Mickey, any luck?" Said The Doctor.

"I'm just trying another number now." Said Mickey. He and Jackie had been up all night scouring for contacts who may be able to help them. Sadly, all of them were on voicemail. Hopefully, this latest one would be different.

"You have reached Torchwood." Said an automated voice. "Unfortunately, all our operatives are busy right now but please stay on the line."

Mickey slammed the phone down in frustration. "Still no luck." He said.

"Voicemail dooms us all." Said Harriet.

"Look Doctor." Said Jackie. "I'm not saying I trust you. But there must be something you can do."

"Perhaps we could ferment the port into vinegar?" Rose suggested.

"All we'd need is a month." Said Harriet.

"Well, there's got to be something!" Cried Rose.

"There's a way." The Doctor said, though he stared at a spot on the floor as he said it. "There's always been a way."

"Well, why haven't we used it then?"

He stepped up to the table and spoke into the phone. "'cos I could save the world but lose Rose."

"Well do it then." Said Rose.

"He looked up at her. "You don't even know what it is but you still trust me?"

"We're all going to die anyway... We're not important right now."

"She is to me!" Said Jackie. "Please Doctor. She's my daughter. She's just a kid."

The Doctor looked back and forth between the woman who was prepared to follow him to her death and the voice on the phone pleading with him not to do it. "Do you think I don't know that. This is my life, Jackie. It's not smart. It's not fun. Sometimes, it's just standing up and making a decision, 'cos no-one else will."

"It's not your decision to make though." Said Harriet. "It's mine."

"And who are you?" Shouted Jackie.

"Harriet Jones. MP for Flydale North. The only person in the room elected by the people, for the people. And, on behalf of the people, I command you, Doctor to proceed, if it saves the Earth."

The Doctor grinned.

"How do we get out?" Said Rose.

"We don't. We stay right here." Said The Doctor. He snatched a file from the briefcase. "Right, Mickey, use the buffalo password, it overrides everything. Here's what I want you to do."

* * *

All the Slitheen, minus one or two guarding the cabinet rooms, had gathered in the Prime Minister's office. Since their plan was entering its final phase, there was no further need for their disguises. The room flooded with blue light as they unmasked.

* * *

In New York, the UN had finally made their vote. It was unanimous. They would release the codes. In a few minutes time, The Slitheen would have everything they needed.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Said Jackie.

"Hacking into the Royal Navy." Mickey replied.

He located a section detailing the locations and specs of every vessel on manoeuvres.

"HMS Taureen, Trafalgar class sub. It's the nearest. Five miles off the coast of Plymoth."

"That's just what we need, select it." Said The Doctor.

Mickey looked at a list of armaments before him. "We can't go nuclear, we don't have the codes."

"We don't need to. All we need's an ordinary missile. What's the first category?"

"_Sub Harpoon. UGM-84A_" Mickey read.

"That's the one. Click on it."

"I could stop you, you know." Said Jackie.

"Then do it." Mickey said.

Jackie stared sadly at him for a few moments before deciding to sit down.

Mickey resumed keying in coordinates. "It's loaded." He said finally.

"Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands." Said The Doctor. "Fire."

His hand hovered over the mouse for a few seconds as he considered that he'd never killed before. In some part of his mind, he groped for a better way, but there wasn't one. It was them or the world.

He clicked the big red _fire_ icon. Sending a missile screaming towards 10 Downing Street.


	8. The Blast

**Chapter 8: The Blast.**

Alert light lit up all over the bridge of HMS Taureen. The Captain marched over to his gunner and demanded an explanation.

"I didn't fire sir! Someone's hacked the system!"

"Abort the missile!"

"It won't respond sir, they've hacked that too."

* * *

"How strong are these walls?" Said Harriet.

"Not strong enough." The Doctor replied. "Built for short range attacks, nothing this big."

That gave them about two minutes to live. The MP felt strangely calm about the fact.

"Alright." Said Rose. "I'm making the decisions now. We're not going to die, we're gonna ride this one out. I've heard you can survive earthquakes by sheltering in a doorway." She ran over to the storage cupboard in the corner. "This cupboard's small, it can protect us. Harriet, help me out." The two women hurriedly flung a series of heavy files and bodies out into the cabinet room.

"It's on RADAR." Said Mickey. "Counter defence, 556."

"Stop them intercepting!" Said The Doctor.

"I'm doing it now." Said Mickey, hurriedly keying _buffalo _into several more menus. "Counter defence 556 neutralised."

* * *

The missile took less than a minute and a half to reach the coast, the sonic boom echoed throughout the silent streets of Bournemouth.

"What do you mean "incoming"?" Scott asked a baffled looking operative.

* * *

The man pointed to the RADAR screen on his computer. A missile shaped blip was approaching the M25 and closing in on Central London.

Scott blinked in surprise a couple of times then hurried for the nearest fire alarm.

"Everybody out!" He shouted as he smashed the alarm. Everyone on the ground floor promptly hurried for the nearest door. That just left the politicians upstairs. The Sergeant hurried up, found the door to the Prime Minister's office and flung it open.

"Sir, there's a missile..." He began, before falling silent as he was presented with twenty or so bug eyed green creatures. An equal number of skin suits lying on the floor.

"Sorry." He said, and promptly ran.

* * *

The missile was in descent now. Londoners heard the scream of it engines and hurried to their windows to investigate. Jackie Tyler watched it go, from a balcony, with her hands on her head.

* * *

The Slitheen were scrambling to get their skin suits back on. They'd relied on having at least four minutes to escape, not thirty seconds. The panic slowed them down further, turning their efforts into a shambles. One of them got part of the way there before realising that he'd put his legs in the skin suit's arms.

* * *

Trying not to think about what he'd just seen, Scott hurried out the door of Number 10. Fortunately, the press had been cleared from the street so that only left a handful of soldiers.

He fired his gun in the air several times to get their attention. "Incoming!" He screamed. "Everybody run!"

Thanks to their emergency training, Downing street was clear within 10 seconds. Scott looked back to see the missile streaking into view.

* * *

The Doctor, Rose and Harriet adopted the brace position, huddled in the cupboard with the door shut.

"Nice knowing you both." Said Harriet.

* * *

Green saw the missile a second before it hit. "Oh bol-" He had time to say, before a tremendous explosion rocked the building.

The guards outside watched as a tremendous fireball engulfed 10 Downing street. Bricks, wood and glass went flying everywhere.

The Doctor, Rose and Harriet heard the deafening noise, followed by an alarming shake. The floor dropped away beneath them and they went tumbling over as the whole room fell. They were jolted once more as it hit the ground, a floor below.

The sounds of the explosion were soon replaced by a series of loud bangs as rubble rained down on them, knocking huge dents in the roof. But, somehow, the structure around them remained intact and they were able to get up and crawl for the door, once the banging had stopped.

The cabinet room itself hadn't fared well. The wider floor had partially folded over in the fall and a particularly large chunk of rubble had caved the roof in completely, splitting it at one point.

Spotting daylight through the split, they crawled over to it and squeezed through.

The cabinet room may have been bent and battered but it was probably the most intact thing in the rubble of Number 10. Minus a few crumbling remains of walls, the whole building had been flattened.

"British engineering." Harriet declared proudly, staring at their shelter.

Scott was picking through the rubble, looking for survivors. He promptly rushed over to the three of them.

A soldier who was with him recognised The Doctor and raised his rifle.

"Don't shoot!" Scott ordered quickly. "The... Prime Minister lied to us. The Doctor's harmless." He turned to the survivors. "Are you alright?"

Harriet stood up straight and pulled out her card. "Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. I want you to contact the UN immediately. Tell them the crisis is over. They can step down."

Scott no longer knew what was normal procedure. Having seen the Prime Minister's office filled with aliens in skin suits, he was happy to follow anything. "Right away ma'am."

"Someone's got a job sorting out this lot." Harriet said as the Sergeant went to find a phone. Just then she realised. "Good Lord we haven't even got a Prime Minister!"

"Maybe you should apply." The Doctor offered.

"Me? I'm only a back bencher."

"I'd vote for ya." Rose grinned.

"Now let's not be silly." She looked at the confused troops down the road. "Look, I'm just going to see if I can help." She called out to the soldiers as she clambered over the rubble.

"I thought I knew the name somewhere." Said The Doctor. "Harriet Jones. Prime Minister for five successive terms. Architect of Britain's golden age."

The explosion had set off a rush of panic reminiscent of the previous day's. The army were setting up a cordon further down the road. But, with the Prime Minister and his lackey's lying in the rubble, there was no-one giving them orders and they were in a general state of confusion as to what to do, or how to deal with the reporters suddenly asking them questions.

Knowing she was the only politician within 20 miles, Harriet decided to do something to calm them. She stood in the middle of the Police line and announced. "Attention ladies and gentlemen! The Earth is safe." The press promptly rallied around her. For want of a better leader, so did the soldiers. "Mankind stands tall today. Proud, and undefeated. God bless the human race."

* * *

The moment Rose returned home, Jackie threw her arms around her. Neither could think of words to express their relief that she was alive to be there. Instead, Jackie decided to put the kettle on.

She returned to the living room and found her daughter watching a news channel, which was replaying Harriet's speech from earlier. "I believe a clear message has been sent out to any who should invade our world again. We are here and ready to stop them!" The woman was saying.

"Listen to her, taking all the credit. Who does she think she is?" Jackie said, before shouting "My daughter saved the world." At the screen.

"She helped." Said Rose.

Jackie sat on an armchair. "You should be given knighthoods."

"That's not the way he does things." Said Rose. "He never asks for thanks, he just does his job and moves on. He's not that bad if you give him a chance."

"He's good in a crisis, I'll give him that." Jackie shrugged.

"Ah..." Rose grinned. "The world has changed. You're saying nice things about him."

"I suppose I've got no choice since you're infatuated with him."

"I'm not infatuated." Rose groaned.

_Keep telling yourself that. _Jackie thought. Another thing occurred to her. "What does he eat?"

"How d'ya mean?"

"I was going to do shepherd's pie. The four of us could all sit down, have a proper meal, 'cos I'm ready to listen. Find out about him and that life you lead. But he's an alien, isn't he? For all I know, he eats grass and safety pins."

"He'll have shepherds' pie." Rose reassured her. She paused. "You're gonna cook for him?"

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"No. It's just, he's finally found his match." Rose laughed.

"You're not too old for a slap you know." Hearing the kettle boiling, she went to pour the tea. "Also, I'm taking you round your gran's tomorrow. I told her you were in France. You'd better learn some French. I said you were au pairing."

Rose's phone rang, displaying the message _TARDIS calling._ Rose answered it.

"Few more minutes, then we can go." Said The Doctor.

"You have a phone?" Said Rose.

"You think I can travel through time and space and not have a phone? Anyway, I've just got to disperse the Slitheen's signal, in case any bargain hunters come knocking." She heard him hitting some buttons. "That's done. We can be off as soon as you're ready."

"But... my mum's cooking."

"Good." Said The Doctor. "Put her on a slow heat and let her simmer."

"She's cooking tea, for all of us."

"I don't do that."

"She wants to get to know you."

"Tough. I've got better things to do."

"It's just tea."

"Not to me it isn't."

"She's my mother."

"She's not mine."

"That's not fair!"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, you can stay there if you want."

Rose couldn't think of a response. The Doctor clearly wouldn't be convinced to stick around. Staying here would mean returning to her old life permanently.

"Right now," said The Doctor. "There's a burst of star fire in the Horsehead Nebula. Fires are burning ten million miles wide. I could fly the TARDIS right into the heart of it. Ride the shockwave out, right across the sky, and end up anywhere. Or you could stay there. Your choice."

He hung up. Rose thought for a moment. It was a hard choice, seeing as she'd only just returned to her mother and now she'd have to dash off again. But then she'd never expected to stay with her forever and she just couldn't return to a life with no prospects.

Jackie returned to the living room to find her daughter gone. She checked her bedroom, and found stuffing handfuls of clothes into a rucksack. It didn't take her long to put two and two together.

"I've got that bottle of Amaretto from new years eve." Jackie said nervously. "I was wondering if he drinks or not."

"Yeah, he drinks." Rose said, without looking at her.

"Don't go." Jackie said, after a moment's thought. "Please don't go."

Rose paused in her packing and screwed up her face. "I've got to." She said, and resumed stuffing clothes.

* * *

The Doctor leaned out of the TARDIS. The chav he'd found spraying _bad wolf_ on another wall, and promptly frogmarched back to the TARDIS, was just finishing cleaning it off.

"Do that again, and I'll report you." The Doctor said. "Now scram." The chav scurried away.

He saw Mickey sat on a bin, reading a newspaper.

"I've just been down the shops." Mickey said. "And I was thinking, like, the whole world's changed. Aliens and spaceships, out in the open! But then I saw this."

He handed The Doctor the paper. The banner headline read. _**Alien hoax?**__ Experts re-examine crashed spacecraft._ The Doctor grinned. Good old UNIT.

"How can they do that?" Cried Mickey. I mean, we all saw it!"

"You're just not ready." Said The Doctor. "You're happy to believe in something that's hidden. But if it's staring you in the face then "nope, can't see it!" There's a scientific explanation for that."

"Yeah, what?"

"You're thick."

Mickey chuckled. "We're all just idiots."

"Well, maybe not all of you."

"You think?"

The Doctor pulled a CD from his pocket. "Present for you Mickey. A virus. Put it online and it'll wipe all records of me. I'll cease to exist."

"What would you do that for?"

"'cos you're right Mickey. I am dangerous. I don't want anybody following me."

The mechanic glanced across the estate, where rose and Jackie were emerging from the tower block. "How can you say that, and take her with you?"

"You could come with us." The Doctor offered. "Look after her."

"I can't Doctor. This life of yours, I don't think I could handle it. But don't tell her I said that though."

The girls came into earshot. "I'll get a proper job." Jackie was saying "I'll pass my test. And if Jim comes round again, I'll say no."

"I'm not leaving 'cos of you mum." Rose replied. "I'm travelling, that's all, then I'll be back."

She handed the Doctor a massive bulging bag.

"Got enough stuff?" He said.

"First time I stepped in there, it was on impulse." She replied. "Now, I'm signing up. You're stuck with me. Ha!" She turned to Mickey. "Come with us. There's plenty of room."

Her boyfriend simply nodded at The Doctor.

"Can't bring him with us, liability." The Doctor lied.

"We'd be dead if it wasn't for him." Said Rose.

"My word is final."

"Oh well." She sighed. "You will be OK though?"

"Yeah." Said Mickey. "Wouldn't stop you doing what makes you happy."

She kissed him goodbye.

"You still can't promise me." Jackie shouted at The Doctor. "What if she get's lost? What if she's left standing on some moon a million light years away? How long do I wait then?"

The Doctor thought. He did have an answer to that question, but he wasn't sure Rose would be pleased to hear it.

In the event, he never had to explain. Because, at this point, Rose got her mother's attention. "Mum, you're forgetting. It's a time machine. I could go off round suns, and planets and right the way to the edge of the universe. And when I get back, ten seconds will have passed. So stop worrying." She grinned. "See you in ten seconds time."

The Doctor was already retreating into the TARDIS. Rose waved them goodbye and followed him in.

Jackie and Mickey watched as the TARDIS began to fade from view with that same wailing grinding sound.

Jackie looked at her watch and counted. "Ten seconds. She said sadly." And walked away.

Mickey clambered back onto his bin and resumed reading. They'd be back, it was just a question of when.

**Next Time: Dalek**


End file.
